Entrance to Ocean Grove 1876. Do you see any welcome signs  for the OGCMA?

Historic photo of the Main Avenue entrance to OG. Source and date unknown.

Main Avenue entrance sign. Photo 2017 Blogfinger.

By David Fox, contributing Ocean Grove historian:

8/17/23.

The land on which the OG entrance sign stands is a tax exempt park known as “Main Ave. Gates Park.” This is the remnant of the larger Evergreen Park that included the area between Delaware and Main St.

This was reduced on the east by creation of additional lots up to Lawrence. In 1910-11, the Bond St. extension, a bypass for traffic around OG, was built diagonally reducing it further. The western side was given over to commercial use.

The sign in question was donated by hotel owners in 1923 and subject to repainting and rebuilding. By the time of the Great Depression, business was hurting and an additional sign with “Ocean Grove” in blue neon and a red neon arrow was installed in the roadway leading to the gates in 1934.

On the subject of signs, it appears that the “Holiness to the Lord” sign (1894) in the Auditorium may well be it oldest surviving electric sign in the world. Edison erected some temporary signs earlier, but New York City, the leader in this sort of signage, had its first electric sign on the side of a hotel in 1892. This was demolished for the iconic Flatiron Building. Light bulb signs were eventually replaced with neon.